Members in the Media

On the launch of the MAP satellite to measure anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background, CNN Headline News, June 30, 2001:

"These patterns in the light hold the keys for understanding the history, content, shape and ultimate fate of the universe"-Charles Bennett, NASA

"The most important thing MAP will tell us is: are we on the right track on our theories about the early universe."-David Wilkinson, Princeton University

"Once we acknowledge the possibility that empty space can have energy, our ability to unambiguously predict the future of the universe goes out the window."-Lawrence Krauss, Case Western Reserve University, Dallas Morning News, July 2, 2001

"Generally speaking, these things just don't happen."-John Marburger, Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory and President Bush's choice for science advisor, on whether the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven could produce a black hole that would endanger Earth, Washington Post, July 2, 2001

"As an advisor to the president he is absolutely perfect, I just am in awe of what he's been able to do with this laboratory."-Robert McGrath, SUNY Stony Brook, on Marburger's nomination for science advisor and his performance at Brookhaven, New York Times, July 3, 2001

"I'm here so that I can [persuade] particle physicists that there's a lot of particle physics to be done by looking at the [cosmic] microwave background."-Suzanne Staggs, Princeton University, on why she was attending the Snowmass meeting on the future of particle physics, Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2001

"After 37 years of searching for further examples of CP violation, physicists now know that there are at least two kinds of subatomic particles that exhibit this puzzling phenomenon."-Stewart Smith, Princeton University, on evidence from SLAC that there is CP violation in the B-meson system, BBC News Online, July 9, 2001

Comments from Snowmass on why the next big accelerator needs to be international, New York Times, July 10, 2001:

"...what we're looking at is a way for the international high-energy-physics community to come together and develop its own plan."-S. Peter Rosen, Department of Energy

"It is forced on us by the richness of our science and the cost of our science."-Jonathan Dorfan, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

"We're doing what we were doing before that hint came up. Our goals do not fluctuate with those statistics."-Michael Witherell, Director of Fermilab, on news that CERN's possible evidence for the Higgs boson seemed to have gone away, New York Times, July 11, 2001

"The current patent really is the blueprint for the research we're going to be doing for the next four years."-Stan Williams, Hewlett Packard, on a breakthrough in molecular switching, New York Times, July 17, 2001

"Nowhere else will the disciplines of chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and enormous amounts of equipment be brought together."-Philip Kuekes, Hewlett Packard, on the establishment of the California Nanoscience Institute by the University of California, Los Angeles Times, August 13, 2001

"That's enough events to begin a study using statistical techniques."-Adam Rusek, Brookhaven National Laboratory, on the production of 40 doubly-strange nuclei, Physicsweb, August 15, 2001

And finally, two quotes on recent astrophysical evidence that the fine structure constant may be increasing with time:

"The effect does not scream at you from the data. You have to get down on all fours and claw through the details to see such a small effect."-John Bahcall, Institute for Advanced Study, New York Times, August 15, 2001

"The data contain clear indication that these constants were slightly different in the distant past. We have performed numerous sophisticated tests, and the data passed all these tests."-Victor Flambaum, University of New South Wales, Washington Post, August 20, 2001